Agricultural production can be unpredictable due to variability in relationships and patterns within a field for certain agronomic characteristics such as soil properties, topography, climate and other agronomic factors. Advancements in testing agronomic characteristics, through remote sensing, such as the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and on-demand soil sampling, have created the possibility to assess these agronomic characteristic variations in real or near real-time and create appropriate management strategies in real or near real-time. Such management strategies have the potential to optimize crop production. However, this potential is highly dependent on the quality of the agronomic characteristics testing and the accuracy of the assessment of these variations.
One way in which agronomic characteristics are tested is through soil sampling. The agricultural industry uses soil samples to determine the nutrient level of soil in fields. Soil sampling and testing provides an estimate of the capacity of the soil to supply adequate nutrients to meet the needs of growing crops. In some instances, the test results are compared to standard response data associated with specific types of crops to estimate the need to supply additional nutrients for optimum crop production. The test results are then used as a basis for profitable and environmentally responsible fertilizer application.
Due to cost and the time consuming nature of the work, a farmer will typically hire a third party to test agronomic characteristics through soil sampling or remote sensing. The third party collects the soil samples and remotely sensed data and sends them to a lab for further analysis. The work is very time consuming, motivating the third party or farmer to cut corners by not getting enough test samples or not getting the test samples from the right locations.
Soil samples are collected according to a grid pattern which divides up a field into cells with each cell representing an area of the field. Grid sampling can be extremely difficult to accomplish when the weather or field conditions are poor, or when obtained during the growing season, the crop is tall or thick, resulting in critical data points not being collected.
A soil sampler uses a soil probe to take a soil core, which is then placed in a container and sent to a lab for soil analysis. The soil samplers then identifies the container to distinguish it from other containers, often by handwriting specific information on each container or by applying a pre-made label to the sample
Obtaining soil cores is physically demanding, tedious work. The sampler typically takes hundreds of samples from many soil types, some of which complicate the process of obtaining the soil core by being dense, wet or filled with rocks. Because of the nature of the work, a soil sampler may cheat, taking far too few soil samples or taking the samples in locations based on convenience (e.g., to avoid walking long distances through tall corn or muddy fields) instead of comprehensively.
What is needed then, is a soil sampling apparatus, system and method that reduces the physical demands of soil sampling thereby encouraging a soil sampler to take all necessary samples in the area of interest.
What is further needed is a soil sampling apparatus, system and method that provides a consistent soil sample, i.e., a sample that is sufficiently mixed and macerated, free of large clumps and representative of the soil profile in the area of the interest.
Further, what is needed is a soil sampling apparatus, system and method which collects and isolates the soil sample in a collection container without additional handling or transferring from a soil probe.
What is needed then is a soil sampling apparatus, method and system which collects and contains sample, the sample corresponding to the sampling location or locations and the sampling depth or depths in the area of interest.